Delicious Dutch Oven Bread Step-By-Step

fannygisele Ağustos 26, 2022

After receiving a Le Creuset Dutch oven as a wedding present, I needed the perfect recipe to christen this beautiful work of art. I found a bread recipe on the Le Creuset Website and I love carbs more than anything so I knew it would be perfect. The recipe is a little vague but there is a lot of good information in the comments section. So here is the picture story of making this delicious, beautiful, bread.

First you gather your ingredients. The recipe calls simply for “Flour” but I’ve learned that King Arthur Bread flour makes a big difference.

You will need:

4 cups King Arthur Bread Flour, plus extra for the counter when you knead the dough.

1 ½ cups WARM water. The original recipe didn’t specify, but the yeast wakes up better with warm water.

1 Teaspoon Active dry yeast

2 Teaspoons Salt (original recipe didn’t give an amount but the comments section did baking math of some kind)

Some kind of non-stick spray

Dash of olive oil to top the bread

Sprinkling of salt for the top of the bread

Next you gather your equipment. You will need:

A dutch oven of some kind. I loooooove my Le Creuset “french oven” but any dutch oven will do (here is a more budget friendly oven)
Flour sifter
Electric mixer with a dough hook. My KitchenAid is my dream come true, the color of mine is Ice and I got the glass bowl for it separately.
Measuring cups and spoons.

Measure and sift your flour into the mixing bowl.

Measure and add the salt to the flour

Measure and add the yeast.

Let the mixer run for a few second to combine the dry ingredients.

WIth the mixer running on low slowly add the warm water. (This angled measuring cup didn’t make it to the equipment photo but it is the best!

Turn the mixer up one more click to speed 2 and let it run for 10-15 minutes.

Occasionally the dough will get stuck on the hook and won’t be kneading anymore. When this happens stop the mixer, lift the hook and pull the dough off. Then start it over.

At this point I realized I was starving and left the mixer running while I made myself a sandwich.

After 10ish minutes the dough will look more smooth than lumpy.

You should be able to stretch the dough thin enough that you can kind of see through it.

You can leave the dough in the mixing bowl, but you are going to want to cover it with something. My bowl came with a lid, but I just put it loosely on the top and not snapped on all the way. If you don’t have a lid you can use plastic wrap.

Our house was pretty cold that day so it didn’t rise very well. It should have doubled in size, but it didn't. However, the dough wasn’t springing back anymore when I poked it, so I knew it was done working. It came out more dense, and less fluffy than usual, but it was still delicious in the end.

Sprinkle out some flour on your counter and knead the dough until you stop feeling air bubbles pop while you’re rolling it.

Shape it into a ball and leave it on the counter.

Cover with a clean dish towel and leave alone for 10 minutes (the science of baking says you need to let the glueten settle)

When the 10 minutes are up roll the dough into a tight little ball. I like to make sure the top is really smooth so it’s pretty when it is done baking.

After you spray the pan with your non-stick spray place the dough in the center of the pan.

Put the lid on the pan and let the bread rise again for 30 minutes to 1 hour. My house was cold, so I gave it the full hour.

Your dough should have gotten a little bit bigger at this point. Preheat your oven to 450 Degrees Fahrenheit.

When your oven is ready, rub the top of your dough with some olive oil.

Sprinkle some salt on top. I used pink salt because we had some and it sounded fancy. LEGO-Man likes the bread really salty so I add it pretty liberally.

Get a sharp knife or razor blade and score the top. I like to cut a hashtag because I’m an instagram addicted millenial. Then, pop it in the oven.

After 30 minutes the bread will be baked, but not pretty and brown. Take the lid off and turn the oven down to 375 degrees.

After about 25 more minutes the bread will be browned and delicious looking! Take it out of the oven and put it on a wire rack, or a plate if you don’t have a wire rack.